NewAir 250 Count Electric Cigar Humidor (NCH250N201) Review

By Tony Casas | December 19, 2022

We have partnered with NewAir once again to bring you another unbiased review of a new item hitting their catalog. This time, we take a look at the NCH250N201, a great little humidor with some nice amenities.

Our 250 Count Cigar Humidor with Opti-Temp™ just got even better! The Smoker’s Club design features vintage graphics that will transport you to the most exclusive cigar lounges. This Electric Cigar Humidor comes with Opti-Temp™: a heating and cooling system designed to preserve the full flavor of your cigar collection. Inside the stylish stainless-steel design, you’ll find removeable Spanish cedar shelves, a cedar drawer, and an easy-touch digital thermostat that gives you full temperature control from 52-74F degrees Fahrenheit. This compact humidor is ideal for budding cigar aficionados who need to keep their collection stored in the optimal smoking condition.

https://glnk.io/r5l2p/tonycasas

You can purchase this humidor now using this link and if you purchase anything from NewAir be sure to use my personal discount code “TONYCASAS” for 10% off your entire order!

Unboxing and Setup

The NCH250N201 was shipped very quickly to me. And this is something I kinda want to touch on. Anytime I have ever ordered or supplied any product from NewAir it has always been shipped 2 day air and I receive it very quickly. This is their standard and seems to be the case with just about all their products. The product arrived safe from damage in a large brown box. Once I removed the plastic bands and opened the box I was greeted with the humidor wrapped in plastic and completed surrounded by foam pads to avoid any dings or dents. This is my fourth humidor from NewAir and while accidents happen during shipping, I have yet to experience one.

Inside the humidor was a bag which contained the instruction manual, a plastic dish for whatever humidification device you prefer, as well as keys to lock the humidor. The humidor is a decent weight and also to note is that the heating/cooling element is quite large so it does take up some room behind the outside of the humidor. Once I placed the humidor where I wanted to it was just a matter of plugging it in and getting going. The humidor comes completely assembled so it was from box to seasoning within 10 minutes.

Seasoning

Seasoning this humidor was a breeze. Since it is a smaller humidor all that was needed was to simply apply distilled water to the exposed cedar in the drawers and shelves. To do this, I pour a small bowl of distilled water, dipped a terrycloth towel in it, and then gently applied moisture to the cedar. Each of the shelves and the drawer fully slide out so it didn’t take long to get it all covered. I like to use heartfelt humidification beads so I then filled the supplied container with beads, added distilled water, and placed this on the top of my humidor. A note here is that I always place my humidification devices on the top of my humidors since dense air is heavier therefore it falls to the bottom. This is likely not needed since the humidor itself does a great job of circulating the air within it each time the heating/cooling element kicks on. I then let this stand overnight and then re-apply moisture if needed. In the case of the NCH250N201 I did not need a second coat.

Adjusting the Humidor

Adjusting the NCH250N201 is just as easy as the setup. There is a soft-touch control panel in the front of the humidor that allows the user to turn on/off the included interior LED light, switch between fahrenheit and celsius, as well as adjust the desired temperature. The current setting will be displayed in the blue LED section while adjusting and while the humidor is resting it will display the current internal temperature. I have a larger NewAir humidor that I absolutely love and one small annoyance I have is that if I need to view or adjust the temperature I need to open the humidor releasing stored humidity to do so. With this one, all the controls are on the outside so there is no need to lose humidity during that process.

Storage

The NCH250N201 actually has a decent amount of storage space for its size. The humidor comes with two spanish cedar shelves and a spanish cedar pull out drawer. The shelves themselves can easily fit up to 2 boxes of cigars while the drawer can fit about 50 cigars snuggly. In my case, I have a few loose aromatic cigars in the drawer and utilize the rest of the storage space for my pipe tobacco and I don’t think there is a better sized humidor for this. I still have room to spare. While we are talking about the drawers I will mention that one con in the NCH250N201 is the drawers themselves seem a bit flimsy in comparison to the other models I own. I don’t think these will break or fall apart, but the small size of the humidor means the company needed to be sure to use thinner wood for its components.

Quality of Temperature and Humidity Control

The modest size of the NCH250N201 makes for greater control in my opinion. First, let me get this out of the way. The digital hygrometer that is supplied with the humidor is off quite a bit. I tried two different hygrometers from my personal collection, placed in the same location as the built-in one and the results were between 6% – 8% lower each time. I normally don’t rely on the built-in monitors so this isn’t a problem to me, but worth mentioning for those that do. Now let’s talk about this humidor’s strong suit. This is the most consistent humidor I own. I keep my pipe tobacco quite a bit drying that my normal humidor, usually around 60% and 60 degrees which is what I have the temperature set at. In the photo below you will see my hourly readings. Throughout the day the humidity will only fluctuate 1% to 2% which outperforms just about all my humidors. Note: I also used 69% boveda packs for testing with similar results at the higher humidity. Also worth mentioning is how accurate the temperature reading on this humidor is as I would only see a 1 degree variance between the displayed temperature and my device’s readings.

Final Thoughts

The NCH250N201 is a perfect cigar humidor for small spaces, office locations, or in my case pipe tobacco storage. It’s a small little beast that performs exceptionally. While it’s pricey, it’s also worth the investment considering the value of what we all store within them. The cons are minor, and the performance and features outweigh them significantly. If you’re in the market for a new humidor make sure you check this one out and be sure to use the code “TONYCASAS” for 10% off your order.